Pirate Bay Shutdown Ordered By High Court, Six ISPs Told To Cut Service

Pirate Bay is losing its internet access within 30 days. A High Court in Europe on Wednesday ordered six ISPs to shut down the services access to their user networks.

The court order will cut off Pirate Bay access to more than 200,000 Irish users or about eight percent of all users in the region.

The judge overseeing the case claims that piracy activities on the network have devastated sales in the music, film, and TV industry.

The court order came about after EMI, Sony, Warner Music, and Universal claimed that they were losing €20m annually.

The order has been placed against UPC, Imagine, Vodafone, Digiweb, Hutchison 3G Ltd, and Telefonica O2 Ireland Ltd.

Those six services join Eircom, an ISP which blocked Pirate Bay access before a court order required the shutdown.

Justice Brian McGovern said he was confident with the courts decision because of new EU laws which allow such ISP demands to be issued.

A previous High Court ruling agreed that if such laws existed the request could be made.

The court order only affects Pirate Bay’s current URLs, which could lead the company to simply move its massive database to other domains.

Any costs associated with blocking Pirate Bay will be absorbed by the ISPs involved in the lawsuit.

Before the court order, the six ISPs took a neutral stance, refusing to claim responsibility for any part they have had in serving customers with Pirates Bay web pages and download.

According to judge McGovern:

“There is no doubt but that this activity has caused, and continues to cause, substantial financial damage to the plaintiffs.”

Pirate Bay is believed to hold the following type of data: music (25 percent), film (20 percent), and TV (15 percent). It is believed that 78 percent of all music and 90 percent of all film and TV files on the network are copyrighted and shared illegally.

Pirate Bay generates $36 million in annual advertising revenues from its illegal activities.